Discovery Communications -- best known for the Discovery Channel -- is suing Amazon for patent infringement... for the Kindle. They claim to have submitted a patent back in the 1990s that was finally granted in 2007.
That just ain't right.
I'm reminded of a post from Fred Wilson a few weeks back on Patent Trolls. I'm all for protecting the small inventor, but it's been nearly 10 years and to my knowledge Discovery hasn't pursued any e-book strategy worth mentioning.
There really should be a statute of limitations on latent patents.
Bottom line: Use it or lose it.